Bisexual erasure: Perceived attraction patterns of bisexual women and men

Bisexual individuals face identity denial and erasure qualitative analyses suggest that it may be gendered, such people stereotype bisexual women as truly heterosexual men gay. Across three studies (total N = 787), we examined perceptions of targets’ attraction patterns. Participants rated the either a female or male target to both same gender/sex opposite gender/sex. An internal meta-analysis revealed heterosexual, lesbian, gay participants all perceived more attracted than women. No pattern emerged for These differences between perception were also reflected in endorsement an explicit measure erasure. Our findings add understanding unique bias by showing patterns underlie labelling “actually gay”.